


Pretty Girl

by budgie



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, Marceline realises she is extremely bisexualle, One Shot, crushin, exploring the caves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 08:50:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20486162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/budgie/pseuds/budgie
Summary: Marceline and Bubblegum start to explore the caves; Marceline realises she has a big crush.





	Pretty Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the [song of the same name](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGV2QBN2yPU) by Hayley Kiyoko.

‘I have something to show you,’ Bonnibel says when I fly through her window. She’s still at her desk, writing out something. She’s got a notebook next to an open book.

‘How did you know I was here?’

She turns around. ‘I just know.’ She smiles, then yawns.

‘Bonnie, you should be asleep. It’s late.’

Lately, she’s been staying awake later and later, doing experiments and other things into the small hours of the mornings. It’s nice for me, because then I get to see her more, but then she needs rest if she’s awake all day, too.

‘But if I was asleep, then I wouldn’t see you.’

I blush, but she’s not looking at me anymore. She’s gone back to the book.

‘I’ve been reading some of the books I found about Ooo, and this one mentions a cave nearby. It looks like no one has explored it completely, and I know you said you wanted to go out more in the night time. Maybe we could explore the caves?’

‘Oh.’ I fly over to her, looking at what she’s reading. She’s drawing a map, with little annotations. ‘Let’s go!’

‘Not yet, Marceline,’ she says. She turns around and I’m hovering so close to her our faces are too close. For a second, our eyes meet. Then she stands up, I let my feet touch the ground.

‘You’re right, I should be asleep. I know you just got here, I’m sorry, but you should tell me next time.’

‘That’s okay,’ I say, though my heart sinks. ‘I’ll go.’

‘You can stay,’ she says, quickly. Maybe too quickly? ‘I can get Peppermint Butler to get you some food.’

‘Maybe I could just suck the red out of him,’ I say, baring my fangs and grinning.

She laughs. I love when I make her laugh. I get nervous when she laughs, like my stomach won’t stop churning like a cave full of bats. But I like it.

‘Do you want pyjamas?’ she asks me.

I shake my head. ‘I’m okay.’

She gets into bed. We’ve shared a bed hundreds of times, but for some reason now I’m nervous - the bats are back. 

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah, yeah.’ I grab the book off the desk. ‘Just awake. You go to sleep.’

Bonnibel turns off the light on her side and lies down, her back facing me. I sit next to her, on top of the covers, trying to concentrate on the book. But I keep looking at her. 

Even though we’re not talking, I’m just glad to be near her. I’m always glad to be near, even when we’re arguing. I try to read the book for a while, but it’s so hard to concentrate.   
I listen to her breathing turn into tiny snuffly snores. The sound makes my heart skip. And then I realise. I have a crush on Princess Bubblegum.

***

It’s not another week until Bonnibel’s free to explore the caves. Which on one hand, is good, because I haven’t had to see her while knowing I have a crush on her. But the last   
week has felt like a hundred years, and I need to see her. 

When she finally arrives here just after sunset, she’s wearing big boots and she has a little hat with a light on it. My heart picks up and I try to relax, but I’m too aware of the way I’m holding my arms, how I’m almost clenching my jaw. I breathe out.

‘Marcy!’ she says, and we hug. She smells like bubblegum, like sugar, she always does. I hug her tight.

‘Ready for the caves?’ I ask as I watch her take off her backpack.

‘Now I was able to make a rudimentary map of what the old explorers had discovered, she says, pulling out a big tube of paper. ‘I think we should start with this first tunnel, to the left. We can map out the whole thing, the old explorers got far but I think we could go further.’

I look at the wiggles she’s already drawn. 

‘Here, hold this.’ She hands me the map, we’re so close I can smell her. But right now I’m wondering: if we kissed, would she taste like sugar, too?

I blush, but Bonnibel is too busy checking her instrument to notice. 

When she turns to look at me, I can’t stop staring at her lips.

‘Marceline?’ Bonnibel says, putting hands on her hips.

‘Uh, sorry?’ My blush comes back.

‘Are you ready?’ She’s holding up the instrument, it’s got a blinking light.

Am I? I don’t know. Out loud I say, ‘What are you holding?’

‘It’s a few things. Mainly a compass, and it measures how far we’ve walked, and what position we’re in relating to where we started.’

‘Did you make it?’

She shrugs. ‘Yeah.’

‘You’re so smart.’

‘I know.’ She smiles. ‘Now let’s go.’

The cave is wide enough to walk side by side, and as we do, our hands brush. Every time they do, I want to vomit, but in a nice way. After a few times, I wonder if maybe Bonnibel is doing it on purpose, but then that would be silly. Right?

I sneak a glance at her. She’s busy with the map-instrument-thing.

When she puts it in her pocket and her hands are free, I start flying so our hands won’t touch anymore. I can’t deal with this.

***

After a while, we come to a big cave.

‘Oh wow,’ Bonnibel breathes. 

The room is covered in glittery crystals that shine when her headlamp catches on them. ‘The book mentioned the explorers had found crystals, but I didn’t know there would be this many.’

She hands me her instrument and rummages through her backpack before finding some candles to light. I can’t stop looking at the walls, it’s like being inside a giant geode.

‘We should stop for some food,’ she says, setting up the candles.

As the flames flicker and light the whole glittering room, Bonnibel starts to set up a little picnic.

This is so romantic, I think, and then blush, again, but she’s not looking, again. 

The picnic is all set up, a bowl full of red apples is in front of me. I take one and start to suck the redness out of it.

‘It’s so pretty,’ Bonnibel says, looking around at the cave. 

‘_You_ are,’ I say.

She looks at me quizzically. I’m not sure how else to describe it. Like maybe I’ve said something silly … or she doesn’t know how to respond. 

‘Thanks Marcy.’ She smiles. ‘We could do so many experiments in here … I wish I had brought more equipment.’

‘There’s lots of time to explore,’ I say. Did she take that well? Would she ever even like me? But our fingers kept brushing … maybe she was pretending to not notice me blush. Oh my gosh. Does she like me too? The romantic picnic …. Was THIS supposed to be a date?

***

After the picnic, we wander around for a little more, marking our position on the map. But dawn comes too soon, and Bonnibel has to go back to attend to her kingdom, though I wish we could stay out here all the time, just us.

‘Hey, Pbubs?’ I say, rubbing my hand on the back of my neck. 

She turns around, backlit by the dawn light.

‘You’re … you’re really pretty. I meant it.’

Her cheeks turn a dark shade of pink. ‘Thanks.’

‘I was thinking, maybe, the next time we come to the caves it could be like … a date?’

‘Oh.’ 

‘It’s okay, don’t worry. I should get home before the sun rises properly, anyway.’

‘No Marceline, wait.’ She touches my arm, stops me from flying past her. ‘I think that would be nice.’


End file.
